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What Makes A Bacterial Species Able to Cause Human Disease?

Global effort produces first cross-species genomic analysis of Leptospira, a bacterium that can cause disease – and death – in targeted mammals, including humans —

An international team of scientists, led by researchers at University of California, San Diego School of Medicine and the J. Craig Venter Institute (JCVI), have created the first comprehensive, cross-species genomic comparison of all 20 known species of Leptospira, a bacterial genus that can cause disease and death in livestock and other domesticated mammals, wildlife and humans. … Read the Full Story from the UC San Diego Newsroom

Fellow UC San Diego Division of Infectious Diseases faculty members Michael A. Matthias, PhD, and Douglas E. Berg, PhD, are the other Department of Medicine investigators in the international multi-center leptospirosis project. Dr. Berg is Professor of Medicine and Professor of Genetics, and Dr. Matthias is Assistant Professor of Medicine.

Dr. Vinetz conducts his research in tropical infectious disease in laboratories at UC San Diego and at Instituto de Medicina “Alexander von Humboldt,” Universidad Peruana Cayetano Heredia in Lima, Peru. He focuses his work on malaria and leptospirosis.